Consulting with Groups and Organizations

Class dynamics impact organizations in numerous ways. They can inhibit growth, prevent organizations from accomplishing their goals, and even limit participation of the very people an organization seeks to serve.

Class Action assists organizations to address issues of class and money through assessing needs, clarifying vision and mission, helping to develop goals, and implementing action strategies. Our consulting services can help your organization solve persistent challenges and increase effectiveness. We have worked with schools, non-profits, religious organizations, social change organizations, and other groups to identify class issues impacting their work.

We help individuals and organizations to recognize the value of our differences and to develop skills for bridging class barriers and create real connections.

Our programs have proven effective and design interventions that address the particular needs and issues of your group or organization. Class Action has developed creative ways of asking questions, sharing personal experience, and creating safe space for people to engage with issues of class.

Bridging the Class Divide: Helping Your Group/Organization Work Together Across Class

Dealing with class is often the last taboo for groups and organizations. Yet the ignored issues of class differences and classism may be impacting organizational effectiveness. Whether it’s staff/board relations, dealing with donors and development, pay scales, class cultures, or different communication styles, class issues are present and impacting your work. Some goals for your organization may include:

Increase Staff Diversity

Pay arrangements, work hours, and benefits impact who can afford to work at an organization. We assess and revise personnel practices to help attract a more diverse workforce.

Build Inclusive Leadership

By default, people with the economic flexibility to attend multiple meetings, and those whose education and communication styles reflect a certain class background, are often selected to lead organizations. We identify cultural biases and the structural obstacles that prevent the full participation of low-income and working-class people.

Create Welcoming Workplaces

Subtleties of organizational culture – where in an office people are placed, who spends social time together, what communication styles are respected – affect employees’ feelings of being valued or devalued in the workplace. We assist organizations in assessing existing norms and building more welcoming environments.

Improve Fundraising

Class backgrounds and fears about money can prevent staff and volunteers from engaging in fundraising. By build understanding of underlying issues, we open doors to participatory relationships with donors and increased fundraising success.

Class Action helps build new alliances that have the potential to foster and support social change, including building a more just economic community.

-Dorothy Emerson
Unitarian Minister

Class and Communities of Faith

Spiritual teachings hold many messages about the use and misuse of money. In practice, class dynamics impact communities of faith in numerous ways. Class Action creates space to explore issues of class and money and their impact on congregational life. Through conversation, reflection, and action, we assess existing practices and improve congregational health. Here are some of the ways we may be able to support your efforts:

Create Welcoming Places of Worship

Subtleties of culture often determine who feels welcome. We create safe and supportive contexts to explore cultural biases and structural obstacles in order to encourage the full participation of individuals from varied class backgrounds. This can create a deeper sense of intimacy and community.

Increase Economic Sustainability

We help build dues structures and fundraising campaigns that speak honestly about financial needs and encourage all members to make meaningful contributions.

Bridge the Gap Between Values and Lifestyle

Examining religious teachings and exploring feelings about class and money can help people resolve inner conflicts. Through this practical spiritual work, people gain peace and claricoty about their lifestyle choices, charitable giving, and personal priorities.

Class Action creates safe and supportive environments to break the silence and isolation, and mobilize collective wisdom. These are the building blocks of social change.